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Is it okay to eat raw potatoes? I’ve heard everything from them being good for you, to
being toxic.
Raw potatoes at best are bitter. At worst, they can make you sick.
It isn’t like I’m eating raw meat or uncooked eggs.
Any raw food can carry pathogens. And raw potatoes that are green are doubly dangerous,
because they have toxic solanine in them.
I guess not all green vegetables are good for you.
Raw potatoes contain alkaloids. You can have diarrhea, cramps and vomiting.
Whereas green potatoes with lots of solanine can cause hallucinations and heart rhythm
problems.
And if you eat a lot of raw green potatoes, it could kill you. Though I’d think that
the bad taste would deter most people from eating the three or four potatoes you’d
need to get to that point.
Cooking them breaks down the toxins.
Cooking the potato breaks down the alkaloids. It won’t break down solanine, so even cooked
green potatoes are dangerous.
I’ve read that the peels are dangerous.
The peels contain some solanine along with some nutrients. But you don’t have to peel
a baked potato.
That’s a relief. There’s a reason kitchen punishment or KP duty involved peeling lots
and lots of potatoes.
When you want to eat a raw potato, you also have to think about where it has been.
In the ground.
All of the germs in the dirt are on the potato until you wash it thoroughly. You don’t
want to eat a raw tuber that has traces of the manure used to fertilize it.
You’re right. I don’t want to put up with anyone’s crap.
And never, ever eat potato leaves.
I’ve heard of grape leaf wrapped Greek delicacies and raspberry leaf tea. Nobody has ever told
me about using potato leaves.
They contain toxins even worse than a green potato. Oh, and never eat a sprouted potato
raw or cooked, because it contains the same toxins.
So when can you eat a potato?
When it is brown out of the ground, hopefully a rich yellow and not black after you’ve
baked it.